A wireless local area network (WLAN) in an infrastructure basic service set (BSS) mode has an access point (AP) for the BSS and one or more stations (STAs) associated with the AP. The AP typically has access or an interface to a distribution system (DS) or another type of wired or wireless network that carries traffic in and out of the BSS. Traffic to STAs that originates from outside the BSS arrives through the AP and is delivered to the STAs. Traffic originating from STAs to destinations outside the BSS is sent to the AP to be delivered to the respective destinations. Traffic between STAs within the BSS may be sent through the AP where the source STA sends traffic to the AP and the AP delivers the traffic to the destination STA. Such traffic between STAs within a BSS is peer-to-peer traffic. Such peer-to-peer traffic may be sent directly between the source and destination STAs with a direct link setup (DLS) using an 802.11e DLS or an 802.11z tunneled DLS (TDLS). A WLAN in an independent BSS mode has no AP and STAs communicate directly with each other.
STAs in networks of networks may experience different degrees of interference and different numbers of neighboring STAs competing for wireless medium access due to overlapping BSS's (OBSS). Furthermore, when deployments of APs and BSS's are dense, QoS may not be satisfied across the OBSS. STAs capable of multiple channel operating modes may also experience varying channel conditions for the different available channels. Accordingly there is a need for methods and apparatuses to enable coordination in OBSS and channel preference and assignment procedures.